April Fool – Valleys and Hope . . . Thanks Lyle

I missed a few days. Every time I applied the sense of a “legalist” to my hope of posting something from Lyle’s blog every day, I went back and read one of his about busyness. For now, this is my last post in the series remembering Lyle, for now. I intentionally wanted to make it to April. The post I reference will make that clear.

About ten years ago I heard an African-American pastor preach a message where he emphasized the “to” in a phrase from Scriptures. I admit, he got more out of that “to” than I have ever heard anyone before. The phrase he referenced was, “from strength to strength.”

Taken from a passage encouraging people to see the “valley” as a place we move from “strength to strength.” In a couple of weeks I will be speaking to a group of social workers about teenage depression and suicide. As I have been planning for that talk I could not help but think of this post. No, Lyle was not depressed. But, events could well be seen as depressing.

If you follow all the way to the comments, meaning click over to his original post, you will see Kandi interacting with the post and offering encouragement. You will also see how Lyle was encouraged and you could say moving from “strength to strength.”

Here is the post.

MONDAY, APRIL 04, 2005

 

April Fool

I don’t know why it is, but if I were superstitious I would think that April is always a bad month for me. 

Baseball starts, but when I was a kid I always started out on the B team, had to work my way to the A team, even if I was an all star the year before. Usually played on the team with no uniforms, like in “Sandlot”.

Some people close to me have died in April, from my earliest youth to adulthood.

Several tragedies have occurred in April. The Titanic sank, Murrah bombing, Lincoln Assasination, Waco standoff, Columbine and many other tragedies. Sorry for being so morbid and random.

Tax time is in April, so April is always brutal. Business is always tight or cash flow rather.

Sometimes it rains in April… too much some times.

I was wondering why I have not been sleeping lately…oh yeah, it’s April. I know it sounds ridiculous and I am sure my negative feelings will bring on some of my own problems this month. So I will try to not think of me…….but then there are the bombing victims, the Columbine victims, the Pope passed away ( he is not my Pope, but was still a good Pope I guess)……….feels like April to me.

I know as a Christian I should be writing inspirational messages of how Christ can overcome, and this I do know. But right now I feel like I am in the valley. And I am pretty sure I don’t doubt God, maybe I am doubting myself, like the preacher said Sunday. Sometimes we suffer because we are human, it is part of life. Now that I think about it God has always been faithful (even though I may suffer), as well as my community of believers (friends) who has been faithful……… even in April.

POSTED BY LYLE AT 11:37 PM

 

 

About the Author
Husband to Patty. Daddy to Kimberly and Tommie. Grandpa Doc to Cohen, Max, Fox, and Marlee. Pastor to Snow Hill Baptist Church. Graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Reading. Photography. Golf. Colorado. Jeeping. Friend. The views and opinions expressed here are my own and should not be construed as representing the corporate views of the church I pastor.

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